TODO To be completed → add "rsh" proxy settings

‘vi’ and 'vim' text editors

Notes:

When typing text, press <ESC> once finished. In case you’re blocked, press also <ESC> before executing commands described below
both editors use case sensitive commands

Request	Command
To quit without saving	Press ‘:’ then enter ‘q!’
To quit with saving	Press ‘:’ then enter ‘x’ or ‘wq’
Go to top of file	Press ‘:’ then enter ‘0’
Go to last line	Press ‘G’
Search pattern	Press ‘/’ then enter your search text. Press then ‘n’ for next (forward) or ‘N’ for backward
Remove current character	Press ‘x’
Insert text	Press ‘i’ (press ESC once text completed)
Insert line	Press ‘o’ for a line below cursor, ‘O’ for a line above cursor (press ESC once text completed)
Delete a line	Press ‘dd’

‘gedit’ graphical editor

‘gedit’ is a graphical text editor, users familiar with Windows notepad should not encounter difficulties to use it.

Request	Command
To quit	close the window by clicking on the cross top right corner
Save file	Press <CTRL-S>

‘nano’ text editor

‘nano’ is a basic text editor, very simple to use and displaying available commands at the bottom of the screen. For example, to leave ‘nano’ , use ^X (press CTRL + X)

How to setup ‘ssh’ trusts between Linux and Tru64

Notes

The prompts will tell you where to execute the commands, "Tru64#" (root user) or "Linux#" (root user)
Remember Linux/Unix is case sensitive
If hosts are not known by each other, fill the /etc/hosts file for example (using vi for example)
linuxhost represents the name of your CHARON server (can be any name you want)
tru64host represents the hostname of your Tru64 virtual machine

Generate the key

Linux# cd /root/.ssh
Linux# ssh-keygen -t rsa

→ Do not specify a passphrase
Linux# ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa.pub > linuxhost.pub

Copy the linuxhost.pub file, or use copy/paste, in the /.ssh2 folder on the Tru64 host
Define the authorization file:

Tru64# cd /.ssh2
Tru64# echo "Key linuxhost.pub" >> authorization

Initialize the first ssh connection (answer 'yes' to confirm)

Linux# ssh tru64host date

then retry the same command to verify the trust is working.

If an error occurs, you can check and clean the /root/.ssh/known_host file on the Linux host

How to setup ‘ssh’ trusts between Linux and VMS

Notes

The prompts will tell you where to execute the commands, "VMS$" (system user) or "Linux#" (root user)
Remember Linux/Unix is case sensitive, VMS is not
Linux: if VMS host is not known, add it to /etc/hosts for example
VMS: if Linux is not known, add it using: $ UCX SET HOST LINUX /ADDR=xx.xx.xx.xx

Enable SSH on the VMS server:

VMS$ SET DEF SYS$LOGIN
VMS$ @TCPIP$CONFIG

Select then:

Option 3 - Server components then enable and start service SSH, option 19

then Option 2 - Enable & Start service on this node

...
* Create a new default server host key? YES: YES
Creating private key file: TCPIP$SSH_DEVICE:TCPIP$SSH.SSH2]HOSTKEY
Creating public key file: TCPIP$SSH_DEVICE:TCPIP$SSH.SSH2]HOSTKEY.PUB
...

Generate the key on the Linux server and convert it to be readable by VMS

Linux# ssh-keygen -t rsa
→ Do not specify a passphrase
Linux# ssh-keygen -e -f /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub > /root/.ssh/linuxserver.pub

Copy the generated file /root/.ssh/linuxserver.pub (or use copy/paste between putty session for example) to the VMS system in the SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.SSH2] directory
If this folder does not exist, create it using the following command: $ CREATE /DIRECTORY SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSMGR.SSH2]

On the VMS system add the Linux server key to the authorized keys:

VMS$ SET DEF SYS$SYSLOGIN
VMS$ SET DEF SYS$SYSROOT:[.SSH2]
VMS$ OPEN/WRITE TMP AUTHORIZATION.

If the file already exists, use /APPEND instead of /WRITE
VMS$ WRITE TMP "KEY LINUXSERVER.PUB"
VMS$ CLOSE TMP

Do not forget the dot at the end of the authorization file name

Perform some tests (examples)
Charon server name "charon", vms system name "pluto":

charon# ssh system@pluto "show system /noproc"
OpenVMS V7.3-2 on node PLUTO 27-SEP-2013 11:50:14.37 Uptime 0 19:20:07

Shutdown guests with Expect tool

Introduction

In case SSH cannot be used to perform clean shutdown of the guests, the "expect" tool can be used to connect to the console, perform the login operation and execute the shutdown command depending on the console status (at login prompt, shell prompt or SRM prompt)

In this case the password is sent without encryption.

To facilitate use of "expect" for shutdown, an example is provided in the "guest_shutdown.exp" script located in the /opt/charon/utils folder. If you plan to customize the script, you'll have to create a copy and not use it directly as it will be overwritten in case of Toolkit upgrade.

'telnet' and 'expect' packages must be installed in order to use this feature.

The following error message can be returned when stopping the virtual machine when trying to use the expect script example:

if expect package is not installed: "Stop script returned error code 126".
if telnet is not installed: "%EXPECT-F-NOSRM, Cannot continue, 'telnet' is not installed" then "Stop script returned error code 4"

Caution: the virtual machine process will be however killed by service management process

Console locked:

Any active session to the console must be killed before the "expect" script is executed.

For example, if you are connected via "telnet" on the localhost/port (the kill is not done inside the expect script). Using the "/opt/charon/utils/charon_gstart_expect" script file the necessary operations will be performed.

If the console is locked from another host (if you use putty for example), you will have to cancel the connection by yourself otherwise the shutdown will not be performed cleanly.

This script can handle the following situations:

No user connected on the console:
- Expect: "Username: " (VMS) or "login: " (Tru64)
- Action: An interactive session will be initiated based on <user> and <password> provided in the parameters
A user is connected on the console:
- Expect: <prompt> provided in the parameters
- This user must have privileges to perform shutdown as no logout will be issued
- Action: Depending on the Operating system parameter (see <opsys> below), the shutdown command will be sent
Console is at SRM prompt:
- Expect: ‘>>>’ (so works with VAX and Alpha with "P00>>>")
- Action: A 'power off' command will be issued. If the command is not recognized, the F6 key will be sent (this must be enabled within the configuration file). If the F6 key did not stop the emulator, the script will exit with error code 9 meaning you will have to kill the emulator process yourself. Using the "/opt/charon/utils/charon_gstart_expect" script file the necessary operations will be performed.

Script usage

Usage:

# path/script <port> <user> <password> <prompt> <opsys>

Parameters:

Parameter	Description
<port>	telnet port number (example: 10003)
<user>	username for login (must be able to perform shutdown)
<password>	password
<prompt>	shell prompt (including end space) or last characters of the prompt
<opsys>	VMS or UNIX

Example:

How to restart CHARON-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure

This part only applies to Linux distributions using systemd thus Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x versions are not concerned.

Edit the service configuration file and add the following parameters using the "VM Management" option from the menu then "Manage 'systemd services".

Update the service and server boot parameters as described in the appendix How to restart CHARON-VAX/AXP on Linux automatically on failure

Tips and Tricks

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